Story+1985-01-15+Charlotte,+NC

´´Alright, hello, Charlotte!....any of you guys ever been down to Darlington County? (crowd cheers)....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´´Darlington County´´**

´´Thanks, here´s, uh....a song, I guess, uh, the hardest thing to, to find out there these days is something to hold on to, something that you can believe in and uh....I guess this is a song about people are so hungry to believe in something that they´ll believe in anything that comes along....it´s about blind faith, blind faith....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Reason To Believe´´**

´´This is a song about, I guess, when I was....when I was a kid, I can remember a big deal was when my father´d decide that we need another car....and he´d take us down to the used car lot....and like you know your mind´d be racing and you´re thinking....with me and my sister, it was the only time that we ever used to get along ´cause we´d both go to my old man and say ´Dad, come on, get a convertible, please, please, please, please´ (chuckles) and he´d go ´Well, you know, I´ll think about it and I´ll have to ask your mother and you know´ (chuckles) so, anyway, we´d get down there and we´d be looking around and me and my sister´d be running around all the convertibles and stuff and we´d always come home with, like, you know, a four-door, hard-top Rambler (chuckles) but we used to always know how to get him back, me and my sister found like the exact spot in the backseat where no matter what you did while he was driving, he couldn´t reach you, you know (chuckles) it was like that little spot way over in the corner where like....he couldn´t get you (chuckles)....anyway (chuckles)....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Used Cars´´**

´´Thanks, about, uh....I guess it was 1976, we were on tour down in Memphis....and uh, it was like late at night and I remember me and my guitar player Steve, we decided we wanted something to eat....so we call up a taxi cab, this taxi cab came down to the motel and, uh, we said ´We want someplace to eat outside of town,´ he says ´Well, there´s a place like right out by Elvis´ house´....so we said, like, ´You know where Elvis lives?’ he says ‘Yeah, yeah’ ‘Well, take us right there´ so the guy drove us right out to Elvis´ Graceland and I remember I got out of the cab, I´d never been there before and I stood in front of those gates with the, with the guitar players on ´em and I seen this light in the second story window and I decided I was gonna try and meet Elvis....and uh....the cab driver said ´No, they got big dogs over there, if you jump over the wall, they´re gonna come up and, and, and eat you alive and stuff´ but I jumped up over the wall and I started to run towards the frontdoor and uh....I guess now I think it´s kind of stupid because I hate it when people do it at my house and stuff (chuckles) but, but uh (chuckles) it´s like (chuckles) but uh, anyway, I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth and uh (chuckles) so I ran up to the frontdoor and these guards came out and asked me what I wanted and I said I wanted to, you know, ´Is Elvis home?´ and they (chuckles) it´s about 3am in the morning and they said ´No, no,´ I said ´Yeah, but, you see, like, I´m a guitar player too and like I was on the cover of Time and Newsweek,´ they said ´Oh yeah, sure you were (chuckles) oh, oh yeah, ok, sure you were, oh´ (chuckles) and they took me back down and put me back out on the street....they were nice about it, though, but uh (chuckles) I don´t know, I don´t know what I would´ve said to him if I´d met him, I´d´ve probably just stood there....but I remember how I felt when, when a friend of mine called me up and told me that he´d died, I guess, if you loved him, you felt like there was a little piece of you, piece of you that went away and uh....it was hard to understand how somebody, somebody who came in and, and whose spirit like took away so many people´s loneliness could´ve ended up seeming as lonely as he did....but, uh, anyway, his birthday was just a little while ago so this is a ´Happy birthday´-song, I guess....and uh.....´cause he deserved, he deserved a lot better, better than he got, this is called ´Bye Bye Johnny´....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Johnny Bye Bye´´**

´´Now, see, I got....I got some relatives down here in Charlotte (chuckles) I got some cousins and today, like, I went (?) my cousin and I picked him up at high school, I was out at that Independence High School (some cheers) and, uh (chuckles) was out at Northeast High School (some cheers) Clearcreek and, like, you know, I was sitting there in the car watching the kids come out of school and stuff....and I guess this is a song like about kind of like old times....so I was sitting there, watching everybody come out of school and jump in their Camaros, taking off down the road....I did not feel the least bit nostalgic (chuckles) ´cause I´m always out in some bar and there´s always somebody coming up to me, saying ´Oh, man, remember what a great time we had in high school? Remember all that fun? Oh, remember me? Me, yeah, remember the guy, the guy, you know, in the study hall that dumped the pizza pie on your head? Yeah, that´s me! How you doing? How´s the band?´ you know, it´s like (chuckles) like, I realised, like, I hated high school....couldn´t stand it....didn´t like it at all.... I´m still glad like when fall comes around, I don´t have to go back to high school....8 o´clock I´m still waiting for somebody to tap me on my shoulder, take away my guitar and make me do my homework....damn....in high school I was only interested in two things....now, one was the guitar....and the other one was....was....was.....let me give you a hint: both of them you can do with your hands (chuckles) that´s all I can tell you (chuckles) but like anyway.... second one´s good if you´ve got a partner (chuckles) but as I grew up, the only one I really became proficient at was the guitar (chuckles) that´s why the shows are so long ´cause the other thing happens so fast all the time (chuckles) but, but like my New Year´s resolution, I´m gonna get it down so I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise all the time (chuckles) I´m gonna get it perfect, perfect in ´85 (chuckles) that´s (chuckles) ´Perfect in ´85,´ that´s my, that´s my motto (chuckles) anyway, all things must pass....and in the end ain´t left with nothing but glory days....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Glory Days´´**

´´Thanks, if you....if you grew up in the ´60s, you, uh....when it seemed like the whole world, certainly the whole country was, was exploding apart right down the middle, there was a tremendous sense of possibility, you know the importance of today´s date, it´s Martin Luther King´s birthday.... and how he was such a brave man, he came and tried to free everybody from bonds of, uh, racial oppression, somebody who believed just in the basic decency of the human spirit and that if we all tried and if we (?) together, we could make it to the Promised Land....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´The Promised Land´´**

´´Thanks, this is, uh, this is a song, I wrote it, I guess I thought I was writing just about the town I grew up in, what it felt like....I know when I grew up, it was, uh....I can remember really hating it there (chuckles) couldn´t wait to get out, it was a real small-minded place, kind of narrowminded....I remember I used to get on the bus and go to New York City, to the East Village....you know....you could breathe a little easier walking down the street....nobody bothered you....but, uh, as I got older, I started to come home off the road and I´d get in my car and I´d drive back through where I grew up, I´d go see my friends, see what their lives were like....and I started to feel, uh....I guess an attachment for the place I didn´t feel when I was a kid....uh, I guess partly because....I didn´t like the feeling of belonging to someplace, I didn´t wanna belong anywhere....you know....because if you admit that you belong someplace, that means that you got some responsobility, you stand up and you say ´Well, I´m an American,´ that means you´ve got some responsobility to America and to what happens here....you know, and, uh, I guess in our country there´s a lot to be proud of and there´s a lot to be ashamed of....that we gotta face up to, it´s the only way that makes it better....but tonight when you go out into the lobby you´re gonna see some folks that are working right here in Charlotte to make it a better place to live, from the Metrolina Foodbank and what a foodbank is every year here in America 20 percent of all the food that gets produced just gets wasted or thrown away, meanwhile in every city there´s people that are undernourished and people going hungry, there´s old folks whose social security checks don´t get ´em through the month, there´s kids who just ain´t getting enough to eat and what a foodbank does is it collects that food and it gets, it gets it to the agencies that serve the people....so when you got out there, if you could check ´em out, they´ll be out there, they can use your support, if you can lend ´em a buck or if you can spare some time, they´re working right here in Charlotte to make it a more decent and a more dignified place for everybody to live....and uh....I know sometimes hunger seems like something that just happens a long ways away but it´s happening every day right here in your hometown....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´My Hometown´´**

´´(after the singalong) That´s alright (chuckles)....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, beginning of ´´Thunder Road´´**

´´Anybody seen my Cadillac out there?....I´m a roadrunner, baby....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Cadillac Ranch´´**

´´Ah, bring it down now....well, now, this is a song....about the conflict.....between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy...and, brother, you can´t have both....now, where did this conflict begin?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike.... that´s why they call it the Garden State....but, now, understand, understand here, in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....you didn´t have no little bed you could go home and crawl up in and a nice little soft pillow, you could go put the Pop-Tarts in that little toaster and then jump in the sack and watch Johnny Carson....you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....no Sir!....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin....there was no sex....man lived in a state of innocence ....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in....but, now, before the tour started, I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries...and so I hitchhiked on out there and I found out that that spot is now located by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot...I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, with a full fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’...I said ‘I’ll take two’....then I said ´But Dan, but Dan, that´s really not the reason why I came, you see, I ´ve come to find, to try to find out the answer to this temptation, why my soul pulls me one way all the time and my flesh pulls me the other way, why do I feel this conflict all the time....he said ´Well, Son, that´s easy because right here on these ten beautiful commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, in the Garden of Eden there were many wondrous things: there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she looked so fine....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman....and she had legs that were long and soft....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....and then, Son, they went out into the green fields....and they lay down.... and when Adam....let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below....but right here tonight on this backlot for 9995 and no money down and don´t worry if you´ve got bad credit, it´s good here, if you´ve got the nerve to ride, I´ve got the keys to their getaway car....the first....pink....Cadillac....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Pink Cadillac´´**

´´I remember it was right around, right around the end of the summer....and it got cool real early that year and there was this spot, this little strip down by the river where people from town used to go down and dump off all the junk that they didn´t want any more....leave the stuff there to rust....and we used to meet down there on the weekends underneath these cottonwood trees, that was the first place that, uh, that we met....and, uh, you know how it is when you´re first going out with somebody, like, you´re laughing all the time, everything you do is fun, nothing gets in the way, we used to go out riding....but then it seemed like time passed and the things that made her happy once didn´t seem to make her happy any more.... and I was spending....most of my time trying to figure out something that´d make her happy again, she got to where she didn´t wanna go out, she wanted to stay in all the time and she stopped talking....and she´d hide my keys at night so that I couldn´t take, take the car....and ....it got hard to understand because I knew....I knew that she, she knew....that when I´d take the car out and when I won....that it was the only time I got to feeling good about myself.... I don´t know what pulls people apart....but to have just one thing in your whole life that you can do....that makes you feel proud of yourself....I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask, not for anybody.... (....) Well, that was the night that, that was the night that we left....we still don´t know where we´re going yet but I guess that´ll come in time....but sometimes it seems like time gets running so short on you, like it´s gonna run out on you, and so much gets lost or left behind ....there´s not much you can do but keep going....and to keep on searching....and to keep going.....and to keep on going....and to keep on going.....and to keep going.....and to keep on going....keep on going....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Racing In The Street´´**

´´Thanks, thanks a lot, I´d like to....thanks....I´d like to just take a second and thank, thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight, we appreciate it and, uh, I know a lot of you guys wait out in line for a long time for tickets and I want you to know we appreciate it and know you´re out there (chuckles)....and uh....I´d like to thank you for your support of the Metrolina Foodbank, they´re here in your town trying to do something....and uh....it just takes a little bit, I think Elvis, that was one thing that he, that he kind of showed everybody was that one person can really make, can make a difference....´´
 * 15.01.85 Charlotte, NC, intro to ´´Can´t Help Falling In Love With You´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//